The action will see shop counter staff walk out on December 19, 20 and Christmas Eve. Cash handlers are preparing to strike on December 22 and 23.

With the last delivery days before Christmas next week, it has been warned the action will disrupt deliveries.

The union is embroiled in a long-running dispute over job losses, the closure of a final salary pension scheme and the franchising of Crown Post Offices, the larger branches usually sited on high streets.

Some 4,000 workers are expected to take part in the strikes (Picture:: PA)

Some 4,000 workers are expected to take part in the strikes across 300 Post Office, which will either close or operate with a skeleton staff.

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CWU general secretary Dave Ward said its members were being ‘forced’ into ‘fighting to save their jobs’.

He added: ‘We didn’t want to be in this position, but unless we stand up now, the Post Office as we know it will cease to exist. We are defending the very future of the Post Office in this country.

‘We want a Post Office that works for everyone, for communities, for small and medium-sized businesses, and for the people who serve them – our hard-working members, but the people running the Post Office have no serious plan other than further closures and managed decline and we won’t accept that.’

Post Office response

Kevin Gilliland, the Post Office’s network and sales director, said: ‘Just today, we agreed with the CWU that we would resume talks, which have been ongoing throughout the summer, on Wednesday.

‘We are extremely disappointed that they prefer to resort to calls for strike action and we will be reviewing our position in light of this development. Our focus must be on supporting our customers, who rely on us at Christmas more than ever.

‘We want to reassure customers that if further strike action takes place next week at least 97% of our 11,600 branches will not be involved.

‘It will be business as usual in almost all of our network, with over 50,000 Post Office people on hand to support customers as they make their preparations for Christmas.

‘The Post Office plays a vital role in communities all over the UK and the changes we are making support our commitment to keeping these services widely available into the future.

‘Our progress is clear – over the last four years, we’ve dramatically reduced our losses and need for Government subsidy, at the same time as modernising nearly 7,000 post offices, adding more than 200,000 extra opening hours each week, and becoming the largest UK retailer open on a Sunday.’